The State of the Capital Address (SoCA) delivered by the Executive Mayor of Tshwane’s multi-party coalition government laid out the undeniable truth that South Africa’s Capital City is on the rise.
The bedrock of any functional democracy is the principle that the law applies equally to all. This includes those who hold significant political power and those who lead major opposition movements.
Over the past 20 years, the City of Cape Town’s housing delivery has steadily declined from an average of about 9,000 units to approximately 5,000 per year, while the housing backlog has surged to roughly 600,000 units.
The presence of US Marines training Cape Town Metro Police cadets on Muizenberg Beach is not something that can be brushed off as a simple “fitness session”. It raises serious legal, governance and accountability concerns.
The Western Cape Government wastes Billions of Rands on a meaningless Safety Plan instead of discharging its responsibilities to oversee the transformation of apartheid-imposed conditions of hopelessness on the Cape Flats, where a large proportion of the province’s citizens live.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has walked back his recent descriptions of a robust public participation process informing the province’s Safety Plan, confessing in a written reply to parliamentary questions that the consultations he’d referred to “were not publicly advertised”.
The ongoing sewer blockages across Wesbank and Philippi are no longer isolated service delivery failures; they represent a full-blown public health crisis that is being neglected by the Democratic Alliance-led City of Cape Town.
While proclaiming to do the opposite, the City of Cape Town 2026/27 budget contributes to a growing unaffordability crisis for working and lower middle-class communities through a fundamentally unfair system of tariffs.
The Draft 2026/27 Budget effectively formalises a "City-as-a-Service" model, where the privilege of being a resident is increasingly defined by mandatory, high-cost subscriptions rather than actual service usage.
Speech by Roxaan Vorster, GOOD George Municipality Councillor. Note to Editor: This item was delivered during the George Municipality Council Meeting